Sunday, July 17, 2011

The Uglies by Scott Westerfeld



Reading Hammock’s Rating:

4 ½ out of 5
Category:
Fiction
Fiction Genre:
SciFi
Title:
The Uglies
Author:
Scott Westerfeld
Author Website:
ISBN:
1416971203
ISBN-13:
9781416971207
Publication Date:
May, 2011
Publisher:
Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing
Format:
Hardcover | Paperback | Digital | Audio





Author’s Synopsis:

               Tally is about to turn sixteen, and she can't wait. Not for her license -- for turning pretty. In Tally's world, your sixteenth birthday brings an operation that turns you from a repellent ugly into a stunningly attractive pretty and catapults you into a high-tech paradise where your only job is to have a really great time. In just a few weeks Tally will be there.

              But Tally's new friend Shay isn't sure she wants to be pretty. She'd rather risk life on the outside. When Shay runs away, Tally learns about a whole new side of the pretty world -- and it isn't very pretty. The authorities offer Tally the worst choice she can imagine: find her friend and turn her in, or never turn pretty at all. The choice Tally makes changes her world forever.


My review:

I enjoyed this novel because Westerfeld crafted a peculiar future world that, given our society’s focus on external beauty, I believe could somehow become true.  Although the beginning did not capture my attention, as soon as the plot unraveled, I was hooked.  Westerfeld’s plot was hard to predict, and it was easy to feel the emotions of the main character, Tally.  I only have one complaint about this novel – it is part of a series.  I think that this novel would have been better as a standalone rather than in a series because it is hard to maintain the reader’s attention throughout an entire series.  I feel that it is particularly hard for the author to write a series of science fiction novels because the reader is already familiar with the world in which the character lives.  Overall I liked Westerfeld’s story and I would only recommend it to people who like science fiction.  

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